Refrigerator Shelves

ABSTRACT

The invention includes a storage system for storing items in a French door refrigerator that has a compartment and side-by-side doors meeting at a front midline of the refrigerator and enclosing the compartment. The refrigerator compartment includes a volume adjacent the front midline not swept by the doors or by any door receptacles. Embodiments of the system include one or more shelves sized to fit within the volume not swept by the doors and a support configured to attach to the compartment and to support the shelves.

RELATED PATENT APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit U.S. provisional patent application No. 62/992,954 entitled Refrigerator shelves, filed on Mar. 21, 2020 by Gordon Hassman. The entire content of this provisional patent application is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to storage of items in household refrigerators and in particular to shelves installed in such refrigerators.

BACKGROUND ART

French door refrigerators are increasingly popular for household use, in part because they permit storage of relatively large items or a mixture of large and small items. A French door refrigerator typically has side-by-side upper doors opening to a shared compartment. A freezer drawer may be present under the refrigerator compartment.

The doors of the refrigerator swing from opposite sides of the unit so that their free edges (opposite the hinged side of each door) come together along the front centerline of the unit. This causes some design complexities because the doors seal to one another rather than to a fixed part of the unit as in other refrigerator styles. In most models, the doors may be opened or closed independently.

The inside of the refrigerator compartment may be divided by shelves or drawers to make item storage more convenient. Typically, such shelves and drawers conform to the rectangular shape of the compartment.

Refrigerator doors generally also include storage receptacles useful for small footprint items that are frequently accessed. These door receptacles make the doors thicker than they would be if door storage were not present. Shelves and drawers within the refrigerator compartment are recessed to make room for the door receptacles and their contents.

Because either door may be stationary while the other moves, door receptacles along the inner free edge (the portion of the free edge furthest from the outside surface of the door) cannot be as deep as other portions of the door receptacles. If they were as deep, the inner free edge could collide with the adjacent closed door, preventing opening. French door refrigerators avoid this by chamfering or curving the door receptacles along the inner free edge. This decreases the accessible storage space because the doors cannot store anything along the free edge without a chamfer or curve. Thus, the space adjacent the free edges of the doors is unused. It is an aim of this invention to use the space adjacent the free edges of the doors to store items.

Shelves in a refrigerator compartment or door receptacles may be adjustable in position to accommodate different sized items. However, door compartments have only limited storage, so that when an additional tall item (such as a soft drink bottle or wine bottle) needs to be stored, the only options may be to adjust shelves to create a much larger footprint space than needed for a single bottle, or to lay the bottle down. Either may create problems storing other items. It is another object of the invention to increase flexibility for storing small footprint items.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION/SUMMARY

In some embodiments, the invention includes a storage system including additional shelves or shelf extensions mounted inside a refrigerator compartment.

In embodiments, the invention includes a storage system for storing items in a French door refrigerator that includes side-by-side doors meeting at a front midline of the refrigerator and enclosing a compartment. The refrigerator compartment includes a volume adjacent the front midline not swept by the doors or by any door receptacles. The system includes a shelf sized to fit within the volume and a support configured to attach to the compartment and to support the shelf.

The shelf may be approximately trapezoidal or pentagonal to fit within the volume without interference with the doors or any door receptacles.

The shelf may include one or more fasteners. The support has complementary fasteners that engage the one or more fasteners of the shelf. The support may include one or more elongated members, each having a plurality of spaced apart complementary fasteners.

In embodiments, the fasteners are cleats and the complementary fasteners are holes.

The support may include a mount for attachment of the elongated member to the compartment. The mount may include one or more of a suction cup, a magnet, a spring clip, a slide, an adhesive, or a fastener.

The shelf may be slidably or pivotably mounted to the support, and the support may be slidably mounted to the compartment.

In embodiments, the shelf includes an elevated rim. The support can include a tether. The support may attach the shelf to an internal shelf of the refrigerator compartment.

In other embodiments the invention includes a storage assembly for a French door refrigerator, where the refrigerator includes side-by-side doors meeting at a front midline and enclosing a compartment. The compartment includes a volume adjacent the front midline that is not swept by the doors. The assembly includes a support and a plurality of shelves. The shelves attach to the support, and the support is configured to attach to the compartment. The support is also configured to dispose the shelves within the volume adjacent the front midline that is not swept by the doors.

In embodiments, the storage assembly has a shelf (of the plurality of shelves) that includes a flat load surface and a raised rim. The raised rim at least partially surrounds the flat load surface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a front view of a prior art French door refrigerator with doors closed.

FIG. 2 shows a view of a stocked compartment of a prior art French door refrigerator with doors open.

FIG. 3 shows a view of the stocked compartment of FIG. 2 with slats indicating the volume available to the shelves of the invention.

FIG. 4A shows a view of the stocked compartment of FIG. 2 with a stocked embodiment of the shelves of the invention installed.

FIG. 4B shows a view of the stocked compartment of FIG. 2 with an unstocked embodiment of the shelves of FIG. 4A installed.

FIGS. 5 shows a view of the stocked shelves of FIG. 4A-B with right refrigerator door closed.

FIGS. 6-8 show downward looking perspective views of the doors progressively closing adjacent the shelf embodiment of FIG. 4A.

FIG. 9 shows a view of another French door refrigerator with the right door partially closed to show available space.

FIG. 10A shows a plan view of an embodiment of a shelf of the invention.

FIG. 10B shows a perspective view of the embodiment of FIG. 10A.

FIG. 10C shows a second perspective detail view of the underside of the embodiment of FIG. 10A.

FIG. 11 shows a perspective view of an embodiment of the storage system of the invention including the shelf of FIGS. 10A-10C.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The invention includes a storage system arranged to fit within a French door style refrigerator. The storage system includes one or more shelves and a shelf support. The shelves fit within a portion of a French door refrigerator that is unused in many refrigerators. The shelf support holds the shelves in position to flexibly store items in the refrigerator.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 , a prior art French door refrigerator 10 has a right door 12 and a left door 14. Right door 12 and left door 14 are arranged side-by-side. Additional doors or drawers, such as freezer drawer 20 may be present. Right door 12 and left door 14 are pivotably mounted to body 16 of refrigerator 10. Body 16 contains a refrigerated compartment 18 defined by top 22, left wall 24, right wall 26, and bottom 28. Much of the volume above the exposed portions of bottom 28 (except unused volume 46; see FIG. 3 ) may be occupied by door receptacles 38.

Right door 12 has a hinged edge 30 (pivotably mounted to right wall 26) and a free edge 32. Similarly, left door 14 has a hinged edge 34 (pivotably mounted to left wall 24) and a free edge 36. Compartment 18 is typically divided by internal shelves 42 or drawers. Right door 14 and left door 12 may each include one or more door receptacles 38. The rear edge of door receptacles 38 (closest to the back of refrigerator 10 with doors closed) nearly abuts internal shelves 42 to maximize the available storage space.

Because right door 12 and left door 14 may be opened independently, door receptacles along free edges 32 and 36 have a contoured end 40 (see FIG. 7 ). Contoured end 40 allows each door to open with the other door closed but leaves an approximately trapezoidal or pentagonal footprint 44 within compartment 18 in which no items are stored. As visible in FIG. 2 , the unused footprint 44 may be projected parallel to the vertical centerline of refrigerator 10 to reveal an unused volume 46 (FIG. 3 ), shown partially bounded by slats for illustration. The storage system of the invention takes advantage of unused volume 46 to increase effective refrigerator storage.

FIG. 4A and 4B shows an embodiment of shelves 100 disposed in unused volume 46. Each of shelves 100 is roughly the shape of unused footprint 44 so that none of shelves 100 interferes with door 12 or 14 or with door receptacles 38. In some embodiments, shelves 100 may be slightly smaller than unused footprint 44 to account for tolerances and variations in door positioning. In embodiments, shelf 100 may be any size or shape providing that it does not intrude into unused volume 46. In some embodiments, shelf 100 may form a basket, a lidded container, a drawer, a sack, or another shape. The term shelf as used in this document includes these variations.

In the embodiment of FIG. 4A and 4B, each of shelves 100 is anchored to one or more of internal shelves 42. Rear edge 102 of shelf 100 may attach to an internal shelf 42 by conventional fasteners, by spring clips, by magnets, or by other known methods. As illustrated, shelves 100 attach via the midpoint of front edge 104 to a tether 106 attached to the top and/or the bottom of compartment 18. This advantageously supports shelves 100 at both front and back.

In some embodiments, tether 106 may stretch between the top and the bottom of compartment 18 to provide tension to support front edge 104 of at least some of shelves 100. In other embodiments, tether 106 may be tensioned by weight of shelves 100 or their contents. Tether 106 may terminate above any drawers in the refrigerator so that tether 106 does not interfere with operation of the drawers. In still other embodiments, tether 106 may be replaced with a rigid rail to support the fronts of shelves 100 without relying on tension of a flexible tether. Tether 106 may be absent in some embodiments.

In other embodiments, shelves 100 may be attached to other places in compartment 18, such as to the rear surface of compartment 18 or to the support system used to hang internal shelves 42. In still other embodiments, shelves 100 may be mounted on slides that extend from the undersides or upper surfaces of internal shelves 42. In yet other embodiments (including that described in more detail below with respect to FIGS. 10-11 ), shelves 100 may be supported by brackets that attach to refrigerator 10 within compartment 18.

As visible in FIGS. 4-8 , right door 12 in closing brings the contoured end 40 of door receptacle 38 near to shelves 100. Items on shelves 100 are undisturbed by the closing of the doors because shelves 100 occupy unused volume 46.

As visible in FIG. 9 showing a French door refrigerator from a different manufacturer, the shape of contoured end 40 may vary from model to model. Preferably, the outline of shelves 100 is selected to fit within the unswept volume of a majority of refrigerators. In some embodiments, specialized versions may be produced to match individual refrigerator requirements. FIG. 9 also shows that built in drawers may sweep through a portion of unused volume 46 when the drawers are opened. In such refrigerators, shelves 100 (or any supporting structure) are generally not placed in the portion of unswept volume 46 in front of such drawers so that the drawers may continue to be used normally.

In another embodiment, the invention may include a support system that is independent of internal shelves 42. As illustrated in FIGS. 10A, 10B, 10C, and 11 , shelf 200 (analogous to shelf 100 in the embodiment of FIG. 4A and 4B) has a substantially planar load surface 202 bounded by front side 204, angled sides 208, and rear side 210.

Load surface 202 may be bounded by a rim 220, raised with respect to load surface 202, to help contain spills and retain contents on shelves 200. Shelf 200 may also include strengthening ribs (not shown) depending downward from the edges of load surface 202. Additional strengthening ribs may be present disposed more centrally.

Shelf 200 also includes one or more cleats 212. Each cleat 212 includes a boss 224 that extends from the body of shelf 200 and cleat body 226 that depends from boss 224 as a cantilever (best visible in the underside detail view of FIG. 10C). Cleats 212 are disposed on rear side 210 engage to complementary holes 402 in brackets 400. Cleats 212 are designed to flex so that cleat bodies 226 may be transiently deformed to facilitate insertion in complementary holes 402. A restoring force provided by the cantilever helps hold shelves 200 in position against brackets 400.

Rear side 210 may be relieved by notches 206 adjacent cleats 212 for flush mounting of brackets 400.

Shelves 200 may be fabricated of any durable, high strength material such as metal or tempered glass. In some embodiments, shelves 200 may be formed of a high-strength polymer such as polycarbonate, polyetherimide, or other suitable polymer known in the art. Thermoplastic materials are particular useful because they may be inexpensively formed by injection molding processes.

Storage system 300 includes one or more shelves 200 and one or more brackets 400. Brackets 400 are elongated members that attach to a refrigerator compartment 18 to support shelves 200. Brackets may be sized to fit the full height of a compartment (usually around 36 inches) or less than the full height to accommodate opening of drawers in the compartment. Brackets may be made of a high strength material such as steel and may have a U-shaped cross section to provide strength with low weight.

Brackets 400 include fasteners that engage the complementary fasteners of shelves 200. In the illustrated embodiment, each bracket 400 includes a number of spaced apart rectangular holes 402 that accommodate the cleats 212 of shelves 200. Holes 402 may be slightly larger than cleat bodies 226 for easy mounting. The presence of multiple holes 402 allows shelves 200 to be mounted at any of a large number of positions, flexibly increasing the storage capacity of refrigerator 10.

In embodiments, two brackets 400 are mounted to refrigerator 10 parallel to one another and positioned about the centerline of refrigerator 10. In some embodiments, a pair of brackets 400 may be attached to one another at the proper spacing to simplify installation. Brackets 400 are mounted to accommodate the spacing of cleats 212 of shelves 200.

Brackets 400 include mounting hardware to affix them to refrigerator 10. Mounting hardware may include any of a variety of fasteners known in the art or may use hardware that is part of refrigerator 10. In the illustrated embodiment, each bracket 400 includes a flexible suction cup 410 at each end. This may be mounted to refrigerator 10 by aligning each suction cup 410 with an area of refrigerator 10 that is smooth and impervious to air. Compressing each suction cup 410 expels air forming a tight bond. In some embodiments, brackets 400 may have a variable length to accommodate different refrigerator sizes. In other embodiments, mounting hardware may include adhesives, hook and loop type fasteners, cable ties, screws, spring clips, clamps, or other fasteners. Brackets 400 may alternatively or additionally be attached to internal shelves or to other structures within compartment 18. In yet other embodiments, shelves 200 may be extensions of internal shelves 42 into space above footprint 44.

Shelves 200 may be mounted at the desired heights by aligning cleats 212 with corresponding holes 402. Each cleat body 226 may be inserted through a complementary hole 402 and seated. Shelf 200 is then ready to use. Shelves 200 may be removed for repositioning by reversing the process.

In some embodiments, cleats 212 of shelves 200 may be inset with respect to rear side 210 so that bracket 300, when mounted to cleats 212, does not protrude beyond rear side 210. Cleats 212 in such embodiments would be disposed in notches formed in rear side 210. This advantageously limits brackets 300 from preventing use of storage space other than that occupied by brackets 300 themselves.

In some refrigerators, some of internal shelves 42 may be recessed within compartment 18 so that additional room is present adjacent such internal shelves. Embodiments of the invention may include alternative shelves for such locations that are larger to take advantage of the unused space. In embodiments where cleats 212 are disposed in notches as described above, such notches may be deeper in these larger shelves to use a commonly positioned set of brackets 300.

In embodiments, shelves 200 may be pivotably attached to brackets 400 to allow selected shelves 200 to fold out of the way. This permits storage of tall items on other shelves 200 without removing a shelf 200. In other embodiments, shelves 200 may be slidably attached to brackets 400 to allow selected shelves 200 to slide inward, to one or the other side, or completely out. The entire storage system 300 may alternatively be mounted on slides so that it may be slid to one or the other side or completely out. This advantageously provides further flexibility for placement of items in the refrigerated compartment 18.

In some embodiments, one or more of shelves 200 may be preassembled to brackets 400 and the entire assembly may be installed in a refrigerator as a unit. In such embodiments, brackets 400 may also or alternatively attach to one or more internal shelves 42 to ease installation. Brackets 400 support shelves 200 at any of several different heights with brackets 400 at least spanning between the uppermost and lowermost of shelves 200. Brackets 400 may be installed to internal shelves anywhere within this span.

The embodiments described herein are referred in the specification as “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “an example embodiment,” etc. These references indicate that the embodiment(s) described can include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment does not necessarily include every described feature, structure, or characteristic. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, such feature, structure, or characteristic may also be used in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

Further, where specific examples are given, the skilled practitioner may understand the particular examples as providing particular benefits such that the invention as illustratively disclosed herein suitably may be practiced in the absence of any element which is not specifically disclosed herein or within that particular example.

This disclosure may mention certain other documents incorporated by reference. Where such documents conflict with the express disclosure of this document, this document shall control.

It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that many modifications and variations of the described embodiment are possible in the light of the above teachings without departing from the principles and concepts of the disclosure as set forth in the claims.

Although the present disclosure describes certain exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that such disclosure is purely illustrative and is not to be interpreted as limiting. Consequently, without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure, various alterations, modifications, and/or alternative applications of the disclosure will, no doubt, be suggested to those skilled in the art after having read the preceding disclosure. Accordingly, it is intended that the following claims be interpreted as encompassing all alterations, modifications, or alternative applications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the disclosure. 

I claim:
 1. A storage system for storing items in a French door refrigerator that includes side-by-side doors meeting at a front midline and enclosing a compartment, the compartment including a volume adjacent the front midline and not swept by the doors, the system comprising: a shelf sized to fit within the volume; a support configured to attach to the compartment and to support the shelf.
 2. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the shelf is approximately trapezoidal or pentagonal.
 3. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the shelf includes one or more fasteners and the support includes complementary fasteners configured to engage the one or more fasteners.
 4. The storage system of claim 3, wherein the fasteners are cleats and the complementary fasteners are holes.
 5. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the support includes an elongated member having a plurality of spaced apart complementary fasteners.
 6. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the support includes a mount for attachment of the elongated member to the compartment.
 7. The storage system of claim 6, wherein the mount includes one or more of a suction cup, a magnet, a spring clip, a slide, an adhesive, or a fastener.
 8. The storage system of claim 7, wherein the shelf is slidably mounted to the support.
 9. The storage system of claim 7, wherein the shelf is pivotably mounted to the support.
 10. The storage system of claim 7, wherein the support is slidably mounted to the compartment.
 11. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the shelf includes an elevated rim.
 12. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the support includes a tether.
 13. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the support attaches the shelf to an internal shelf of the refrigerator compartment.
 14. A storage assembly for a French door refrigerator that includes side-by-side doors meeting at a front midline and enclosing a compartment, the compartment including a volume adjacent the front midline and not swept by the doors, the assembly comprising a support and a plurality of shelves, the shelves of the plurality attaching to the support, wherein the support is configured to attach to the compartment and to dispose the plurality of shelves within the volume adjacent the front midline and not swept by the doors.
 15. The storage assembly of claim 14, wherein a shelf of the plurality of shelves includes a flat load surface and a raised rim at least partially surrounding the flat load surface. 